Rebels shot dead two in Thai south

Suspected separatist rebels shot dead two people in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, where an insurgency has killed more than 2,800 people in four years.

Suspected separatist rebels on Tuesday shot dead two people in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, where an insurgency has killed more than 2,800 people in four years, police said.

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A military sergeant was killed and two soldiers wounded in a gunfight with militants in Pattani province, police said, while a 37-year-old Muslim villager was shot dead in Yala's Bannang Sata district, which is under curfew.

The Thai south was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until Thailand annexed it in 1902, provoking decades of tension.